


Hey There, Neighbor

by Ebhenah



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Dogs, Fluff, Gay Disaster Shiro (Voltron), M/M, Modern AU, Shance Flower Exchange 2019, pining shiro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-01-31 13:44:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18592441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ebhenah/pseuds/Ebhenah
Summary: When Shiro's puppy destroys the garden of his very cute neighbor, it leads to a promise of restoration, some miscommunications, and a blossoming friendship. Too bad friendship isn't quite what Shiro wants.





	Hey There, Neighbor

**Author's Note:**

  * For [vegalocity](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vegalocity/gifts).



> Written as part of the 2019 Shance Flower Exchange for, and using prompts from Vega!
> 
> I used two of the three flowers given- tulips and sunflowers and tried to incorporate as many of the prompts as made sense.
> 
> It's a little long (I'm wordy, and I can't write pining concisely to save my life!) but I hope you like it all the same!

The garden had been lovely. 

Just the day before he’d been admiring it. He didn’t know much about flowers, but it was obviously a well tended little patch of plants in an otherwise green and grey expanse of sidewalk, driveways, and postage stamp lawns. “You get me in so much trouble sometimes, you know that, right?” he scolded the dog.

Onyx, his six month old puppy had the grace to whine and cover his muzzle with his paws. Shiro sighed, this wasn’t going to be a fun conversation. It was going to be an even worse first impression. “Stay,” he commanded, and Onyx seemed to listen until he got close enough to clip the leash onto the harness- at which point he bolted. Evidently the dog thought now was the best time to play.

The dog was wrong.

Once upon a time, he’d been doing well with training Onyx. Then his relationship had fallen apart, and just as he was getting his feet back on solid ground, he accepted a last minute transfer to the new airfield, and then his work hours ramped up… he didn’t blame the dog. He blamed himself. He’d slacked off on the training and uprooted the puppy and his schedule had been a nightmare since they’d moved into the little house next door. Next week, they were due to restart puppy classes. So, of course, bright and early Saturday morning, the dog managed to dig under the gleaming white picket fence and absolutely destroy the pretty splash of carefully nurtured color that his unknown neighbor had growing in his front yard. 

It only took a couple of minutes for him to catch the dog and get him under control (in theory), but he was sure he was completely covered in mud and soil and broken flowers. “You’re lucky you’re cute,” he muttered.

“Well, thanks! You are, too- for the record.” He went still, sighing as he turned around. His neighbor was leaning against the doorframe of the front porch, a mug of coffee in his hands… because **of course** he was… and… oh God, he was **way** more than ‘cute’. Bronzed skin, bright blue eyes, even brighter smile. Tall and slim, and dressed in a pair of shorts and a tank top that showed off way more skin than was good for Shiro’s heart rate. “I’m Lance. Lance McClain.” His neighbour padded down the stairs, setting his mug on the little cafe table by his steps and extending his hand in introduction. It didn’t escape Shiro’s notice that he offered his left hand, so that Shiro could avoid the awkwardness of trying to shake hands with a prosthetic. It was a good prosthetic, high tech and very functional, but it wasn’t flesh, so handshakes were always a little **weird**. The very cute neighbor guy was thoughtful, too. Great. Now, his breathing was as out of whack as his heart rate. Thoughtful was good, though… Shiro liked thoughtful a lot. “I was going to get an early start on my weeding but…”

“I am **so sorry** ,” Shiro groaned, shaking the proffered hand, “I’m Shiro. I mean, Takashi Shirogane. That’s my name. But… Shiro. Everyone calls me Shiro.”

“Shiro. Nice to meet you… and who is this cutie?” He smiled at Onyx, who recognized a dog lover when he met one and broke out all his best cute puppy antics.

“This is Onyx, and he’s sorry, too.” Fighting the urge to sigh, he passed the leash around his back to undo the winding Onyx had started in his prancing. “I know he looks full grown, but he’s just a puppy, really.”

“Yeah, I can tell… Lab mix? Or… no… Cape Shore Water Dog?”

“Good eye! Yeah, he’s a Cape Shore. You know dogs?”

“Hello, there, Onyx! Aren’t you a handsome fella?” Lance nodded, “mmhmm… my brother runs a no kill shelter. I worked there all through high school. Great breed- **lots** of energy though.”

“Yeah, now that we are all settled in, he won’t be quite as stir-crazy. Too little too late for your garden though, I’ll pay for the… uh… repairs?” Did you repair a garden? Was there a special word he didn’t know? “I’m surprised you aren’t more upset… you obviously worked hard on it.”

“Getting mad isn’t going to undo the damage,” he answered with a shrug, “and he’s a pup. It happens. Now, if this was the vegetable garden out back, things might be different.”

“Still… I insist on paying, since it was my dog that did the damage.”

“Well, alright… if you insist.” The smile that spread over his features was absolutely breathtaking. 

“I do. Where can I find uh… flowers? Seeds? Whatever it is you need to fix this?”

“There’s a nursery over on Main and Colonial. They’ll have everything, and they have the best prices for this stuff.”

“Main and Colonial, should be easy enough to find. Might take me a few days to get over there though, is that okay?

Lance waved off his concerns, “it’s fine- I have to clean this up first anyway and I have the veggie patch to keep me occupied.”

“You’re not cleaning this up! I’m cleaning this up! It was my dog that made the mess.”

“Alright, fine… but I’m going to want to add stuff to the soil if I am replanting, so, you don’t have to be too picky about it. Just get the torn up plants out of the dirt and kind of push most of the soil back to the bed. I’ll deal with the rest.”

“Sure thing,” Shiro replied, smiling with relief, “I’ll do that right now.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day, when Shiro took Onyx out for their morning run, Lance was sitting at the little cafe table with his coffee and newspaper. They exchanged a friendly wave, and Shiro managed to thankfully avoid tripping over his own feet when he got distracted by that stellar smile. Onyx had a lot of energy, and he was making a point not to slack off, because a bored puppy with too much energy gets into too much trouble. So, he was really surprised to see Lance still sitting at the table, now working on a crossword, when he returned.

“Mornin’ neighbor,” Lance greeted cheerfully. 

“Morning,” Shiro answered, suddenly very grateful for the exertion that hid the blush he was **sure** he had. 

“You want some lemonade? I have a fresh batch in the fridge… and a treat for Onyx, if that’s okay with you?”

He glanced at his watch; he’d taken longer than he expected and had a conference call soon… but when he opened his mouth to decline, something entirely different happened. “Sure,” he heard himself say, still breathing a bit raggedly from his run, despite the cooldown he’d done, “lemonade sounds great, and Onyx would love a treat, I’m sure.”

He couldn’t put his finger on what changed about Lance’s smile, but whatever it was made heat coil low in his gut and his heart skip a beat. “Great! I’ll be right back. Feel free to sit if you want…”

He shouldn’t sit. He had stuff he needed to do and it would be far too easy to get side tracked by the tempting, charming neighbor, who liked his dog and had the prettiest blue eyes Shiro had ever seen. There was a conference call soon. He still needed to shower and eat and get dressed and go over his notes… He was still running through the list of things he needed to get done when he felt Onyx’s muzzle resting on his thigh and realized he was already sitting.

Lance returned before he managed to stand up again, proffering a glass of lemonade that looked like it was plucked out of a tv ad. He dropped gracefully into the seat across from Shiro once and held a treat out to the puppy. Shiro watched as he completely charmed the young dog with ear scratches and affectionate pets, murmuring softly to Onyx in an exaggerated sing song of what sounded like Spanish.

“You’re good with dogs,” he observed mildly, trying (and he suspected, failing) not to sound too smitten. Because, oh, he was **so** smitten.

“I love animals,” Lance answered easily, “my ex had a dog and two cats. I am pretty sure I miss them more than I miss him.”

Him. Shiro felt his smile grow, because sure, Lance had made a flirty joke when they’d met, but that didn’t really **mean** anything, plenty of people were jokingly flirtatious with people they didn’t genuinely find attractive. But an ex-boyfriend meant that Shiro might have an actual shot with the cute neighbor. “I suspect my ex-boyfriend would say something similar about me and Onyx,” he joked.

“Oh, ouch! I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to stir up-”

“Oh, no! No, you didn’t! It’s fine. Really. Things were already falling apart when I got Onyx… and the split was a few months ago, so… you know… peak puppy cuteness.”

“Ahhh, gotcha.” He reached out to pat Shiro’s hand soothingly, “still, break-ups suck.”

“Yeah, they do. Thanks… and I’m sorry, too… about the ex and missing the pets and stuff…”

“What? Oh, it was ages ago… any hurt feelings have healed over by now.” He turned his attention back to the dog, “but it’s nice to be around a pupper again. If you ever need someone to take him to the park or whatever, let me know. I work from home, so my schedule is pretty open.”

“You don’t have any pets? I find that surprising…”

Lance made a sheepish face, “if I get one, I’ll end up with a dozen. I was the kid that kept bringing home strays. You’ll remember- I have a brother that **runs** an animal shelter and I was the one who was known for being too soft-hearted when it came to animals. Thank goodness I grew up on a farm and we had the space for all of them!”

“Ahh, that explains the garden. I’m useless when it comes to keeping plants alive. It’s a running joke that my brother and I are cactus people.”

“Prickly and often found in the desert?” He laughed softly, “that doesn’t sound like you.”

“Well, no- but it is surprisingly accurate for my brother. You said you work from home?”

“Yeah… nothing scandalous, I promise,” he winked and Shiro’s mind veered directly into the gutter, making him nearly choke on his lemonade.

“I didn’t! I mean- that’s not! I was just….”

Lance cracked up, “oh my God, relax! I was just kidding! I write. That’s my job. I’m a writer… and no, you’ve probably never heard of anything of mine.”

“I don’t know, I’m kind of a bookworm… I might have…”

“I write Spanish children’s books, that a big chunk of your reading list?” His expression was playful and he radiated good natured teasing. 

“Ahhh… no,” now it was Shiro’s turn to look sheepish, “I can’t say it is. That’s really awesome though. What are they about?”

“At the risk of sounding predictable- they are about a brother and sister who live on a farm, but go on big imaginary adventures together. My twin sister illustrates them. We work well together.”

“They sound adorable. How long have you been doing that?”

“We started our first book when we were fifteen, but it took awhile to get published. What do you do?”

“I’m a pilot… and I’m managing the new satellite office of the company and… oh crap! What time is it?” He glanced at his phone, still encased in the arm strap. “Oh, I’m so sorry! I’ve got a conference call…”

“Don’t be ridiculous! Go. Go! You live next door, I’m sure we can chat again soon.”

“I’d like that…” He nearly tripped over Onyx in his rush to get moving, catching himself at the last moment. The dog decided he was trying to play and immediately started darting to and fro, expecting to be chased or tussled. Stumbling around the dog, he made his way to his own yard. “I’m sorry… I’m not usually such… a disaster!” Even as he said the words, he could hear his brother’s voice in his head ‘God, Shiro- how are you such a disaster-gay?’ Like Keith was in any position to be pointing fingers!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shiro didn’t see Lance the next day, despite taking it upon himself to bring Onyx out for an **extra** run in the evening, as well as their usual morning run. That was in addition to the multiple ‘play breaks’ he’d worked into his schedule when he’d made the decision on the weekend to start bringing Onyx to work with him until his hours settled out. As gracious as Lance’s offer to help out with the dog was, it was ultimately Shiro’s responsibility to make sure the puppy got the attention and activity he needed.

Tuesday, they’d waved to each other in passing as Shiro returned from his morning run to see Lance- looking far too good in a blue suit- climbing into his car. Thankfully, he managed to avoid tripping over the trash cans on the curb at the last possible second. He didn’t even want to think about the fact that **he** was the one to put those trash cans out in the first place. The suit was… a surprise, is all. A distracting surprise.

Wednesday he headed to the nursery, because he hadn’t forgotten that he owed Lance flowers… uh… **plants**. He owed Lance **plants** for his garden. Not ‘flowers’ flowers. Just some new plants. He’d even spent an hour or so researching exactly which varieties of tulips Lance likely had in the garden (based on his own recollection of the colors and such) and jotting down the names of all the different ones. The people at the nursery had given him a bit of an odd look, but he figured they probably didn’t get a whole lot of people showing up with a list of tulip varieties and then buying almost two hundred bulby-seed things. He’d had to make a few adjustments because they were kind of low on tulips, but that was okay. There just wasn’t an even number of each variety. He was sure Lance would be fine with that. He hoped Lance would be fine with that. Oh God, what if he wasn’t fine with that? No… he’d be fine. It was tulips… and Lance seemed pretty laid back. Most people would have ranted about him keeping better control of his dog but Lance had just shrugged it off. It would be fine. Lance was great like that. Groaning, he dropped his head to the steering wheel. He’d had **two** conversations with the guy! This was ridiculous!

Shiro pulled out his phone and texted his brother. 

**_Shiro: hypothetically, if someone’s dog destroyed your garden, how picky would  
you be about the replacement plants being the EXACT SAME as the ones you lost?_**

**_Keith: hypothetically, why the fuck do I have a garden?_ **

**_Shiro: because hypothetically, you don’t have a black thumb of instant plant death_ **  
**_Shiro: and hypothetically you write stories for children_ **  
**_Shiro: in Spanish_ **

**_Keith: ??_ **  
**_Keith: what even is your life?_ **

**_Shiro: Onyx destroyed my neighbors garden and he wasn’t an asshole about it_ **  
**_Shiro: so, I’m replacing the plants_ **

**_Keith: why didn’t you just get him to give you the bill?_ **  
**_Keith: wait_ **  
**_Keith: what does this guy look like?_ **

**_Shiro: stop_ **  
**_Shiro: and NOT your type_ **

**_Keith: 1- I don’t have a type_ **  
**_Keith: 2- you like the guy_ **

**_Shiro: I never said that_ **

**_Keith: right_ **  
**_Keith: you think he is cute_ **

**_Shiro: he is cute_ **  
**_Shiro: like_ **  
**_Shiro: objectively cute_ **  
**_Shiro: it’s not a personal opinion_ **

**_Keith: liar_ **  
**_Keith: you said he wasn’t my type_ **  
**_Keith: so it is TOTALLY your personal opinion_ **

**_Shiro: I hate you_ **

**_Keith: I hate you more_ **  
**_Keith: what’s his name?_ **

**_Shiro: Lance_ **

**_Keith: I have NEVER met a straight guy named Lance_ **

**_Shiro: not straight_ **  
**_Shiro: he mentioned an ex-boyfriend_ **

**_Keith: like in a ‘hey I am just gonna casually mention that I date dudes’ way?_ **  
**_Keith: or in a ‘if you see someone that matches this description call the cops, it’s my psycho ex’ way?_ **

**_Shiro: there are other options for how exes get brought up, Keith_ **

**_Keith: not in my experience_ **  
**_Keith: either ‘I am available’ or ‘RED FLAG RED FLAG STAY AWAY’_ **

**_Shiro: have I mentioned lately how much I hate you?_ **

**_Keith: right_ **  
**_Keith: so he was def flirting_ **  
**_Keith: n he’s cute_ **  
**_Keith: you could show up w dandelions n stinkweed for that garden n be fine_ **  
**_Keith: stop stressing_ **

**_Shiro: they are tulips_ **  
**_Shiro: where would I even BUY dandelions?_ **

**_Keith: not the point_ **  
**_Keith: you are such a disaster-gay_ **  
**_Keith: how have you EVER gotten a date?_ **

**_Shiro: HEY!_ **

**_Keith: just GO already_ **  
**_Keith: bring the cute boy the flowers_ **

**_Shiro: worst_ **  
**_Shiro: brother_ **  
**_Shiro: ever_ **

**_Keith: according to the Bible_ **

**_Shiro: not this again_ **

**_Keith: Cain invented murder when he killed his brother_ **  
**_Keith: are you saying I’m worse than Cain?_ **

 

**_Shiro: I’m saying I understand Cain better every day_ **

**_Keith: cold Kashi_ **  
**_Keith: cold_ **

At least the conversation with Keith had left him smiling. He could always count on Keith to get him out of his own head- even if he was an ass about it. Pulling out of the parking lot, he headed home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Music wafted out of Lance’s house, occasionally carrying laughter with it through the open windows. Shiro could hear it from the time he climbed out of his truck. He let Onyx into the house and made sure the puppy had fresh food and water and access to a few toys to keep him occupied in case Lance wanted to chat. Puppy safely tucked away, he carried the box of bulbs to his neighbor’s and rang the bell.

“Coming! Rache! I think the food’s here!” The inner door pulled open and Lance appeared. He stopped, blinked, and broke into a bright smile when he spotted Shiro on the other side of the screen door. “Oh, hey there neighbor! No puppy this time?”

“Not this time,” Shiro smiled softly, “I hope you aren’t too disappointed. I don’t want to interrupt anything…”

“Oh, no… you aren’t. My sister is just hanging out with me for a bit.” Lance shifted his weight from one foot to the other and the movement seemed to make him realise that there was still a screen door between them. “Oh, my God! I am so rude!” he laughed, pushing the door open, “come in, come in! You don’t have to stand out on the step like a delivery guy.”

Shiro chuckled, shaking his head, “I kind of am the delivery guy today though. I was just going to drop off the stuff for the garden…”

“Lance? What’s taking so long with the pizz- that’s not the pizza guy!” A tall, slender woman who bore a striking resemblance to Lance stepped out of the kitchen.

“Very observant,” Lance said, rolling his eyes, “Shiro, this is Rachel, my twin. Rachel, this is my neighbor, Shiro.”

“The one with the puppy?”

“Yes,” Shiro sighed, “Lance told you about the garden? That’s actually why I’m here. I stopped by the nursery…” He proffered the box again and Lance took it from him.

“Oooh… what kind of garden goodies did you get?” Rachel peeked over Lance’s shoulder as he looked in the box. “Are those… tulip bulbs?”

“Yeah- I said I’d replace what Onyx destroyed so… I tried to choose the same varieties you had, but it’s not an even mix. I hope that’s okay?”

“You bought me tulips,” Lance said quietly.

“These are from the Williamses?” Rachel asked and Lance nodded. She lifted her head to look at Shiro, “the place on Colonial and Main? They sold you these? Today?”

“Yes?” he wasn’t sure why this seemed to need so much confirmation.

“Thank-you Shiro,” Lance said, smiling.

“Lance! You can’t plant these now! And by the fall, these will have what? A 30% fail rate? C’mon… this is shitty! They took advantage of your friend. We can’t let this stand!”

“I’m confused,” Shiro said, “is there something wrong with the tulips?”

“No! No, of course not. Thank-you, again.”

“Lance, you are being an idiot- it’s not **his** fault! I’m sure he **wants** you to be able to make use of what he bought, right?”

“What? Yes. Yes, of course! But… I still don’t really know what’s going on…”

Lance looked from Rachel to Shiro and back again, sighing. “Tulips are planted in the fall. The only time you would plant tulips now is if you were planting them in a climate controlled greenhouse to force them to bloom out of season- like if you provided flowers to flower shops or something.”

“So… these are useless to you?” Shiro asked, feeling awful.

“They should never have sold them to you without double checking that you understood that,” Rachel seethed. “Are you busy right now?”

“Me? No… not really.”

“Right.” She grabbed her purse off the couch and dug out her phone, “I’m making a call. You two… chat.” She made a little waving gesture with her hand as she backed out of the room. 

“Sorry… about her,” Lance sighed, “Rachel’s great… but… like, don’t cross her. She’s a fighter.”

“I’m familiar with the type,” he chuckled, “I’m really sorry about the tulips-”

“Hey, stop. You aren’t a gardener, how would you know? I should have thought of that the other day. Given you a list or something. I… wasn’t thinking.” Lance walked into the room and set the box on the coffee table, gesturing for Shiro to follow. “You want something to drink? I’ve got beer, cola, water…”

“I’m fine,” he demurred, “you don’t need to fuss over me.”

“This isn’t fussing. Trust me, when I fuss, you’ll know. I go full on ‘worried abuelita’- it’s not pretty.”

“I doubt that,” Shiro murmured, because he was willing to bet money that it was downright adorable- just like everything else he’d seen Lance do.

Before Lance could respond to that, a barrage of angry sounding Spanish came from the kitchen and Lance cringed. “Oh, they really pissed her off…” He shook his head, “the Spanish means she insisted on talking to Liliana- that’s one of the owners… and she’s friends with our mother.”

“I’m really sorry to cause so much trouble,” Shiro said again.

“You didn’t! Seriously, you didn’t cause this. It’s just… the way things played out.” He lifted a folder, rifling through some papers.

“Your twin- oh… were you working?”

“What? Oh, no- Rachel was just dropping off some sketches she did… for a family project, not work. You want to see?”

“If you don’t mind showing me… sure. I’m no expert though…”

“We’re working on a surprise for our parents,” Lance explained, “for their anniversary. Everyone is writing them letters, and Rachel is doing portraits of the family, Veronica and Marco are writing a song, Luis is making a video collage…”

“What are you doing?” Shiro asked.

“I’m writing their story,” Lance answered, voice soft and proud, “and binding it myself. I’ve been working on it for years.”

“Years?” he was surprised by that, for some reason he expected this to be something they’d been doing for a few months. He must be especially close to his parents to spend so much time and effort creating such a sentimental gift. Too often, people didn’t appreciate their parents until too late, and since Shiro had been barely twenty when he’d lost his own, it always meant a lot to him to see people who knew how lucky they were to still have them.

“Mmhmm… Little bit at a time. It’s calligraphy, so it’s a slow process.” He flipped open the folder, “these are printouts of scans of what Rachel’s got done so far… nothing is even close to finished… so… umm… this is my sister Veronica.” He turned the page toward Shiro, but Shiro barely even noticed because Lance had sidled up to him as he was talking and it was making Shiro’s brain short circuit.

“Okay,” he said, nodding, “she’s pretty.”

“She is- and so is Rachel… and that is the most boring thing about either of them.” Lance grinned at him and he caught himself nodding again. He barely managed to force his focus back to the picture he was being shown. He didn’t know enough about art to gauge how close the picture was to being complete, but it was already gorgeous. The woman in the image was indeed pretty, with wavy, chin-length hair and the same kind of fine-boned features that Lance possessed. He could see the intelligence in her eyes, quick wit in the quirk of her smile. Even though the picture was clearly unfinished, it already captured so much personality in those few lines and washes of color.

“I can believe it,” he answered, “your family seems to be really close.”

“We are- it was rough for a little bit there, but I outgrew it and smartened up.”

“Lance! Don’t show him my doodles!” Rachel rushed over, snatching the folder out of Lance’s hands, her cheeks blazing, “those aren’t finished! You don’t see me handing out your manuscript to people, do you?”

“Rachel these are gorgeous! And I told him they were sketches! Calm down!”

They switched to what he initially thought was Spanish, but quickly realised was no language he had ever heard and on top of that Shiro could barely keep up with which one was actually speaking because they kept cutting each other off and talking over one another. Finally, Lance made a strange gesture with his hand and said a word that sounded almost like baby talk and Rachel glared at him and huffed, then made a visible effort to calm herself down. “Sorry Shiro, you shouldn’t have to listen to our nonsense.”

“It’s fine,” he demurred, “I’m the one intruding-”

Lance swatted Rachel’s shoulder, glaring at her, “see? No, Shiro, you aren’t intruding, at all. Really.”

“Lance is right, you are a guest. I am just… self-conscious about my work until I am finished with it.”

“I’m no expert, but I thought that the one picture I saw was lovely. Lots of personality in it already.”

“Vero,” Lance offered up helpfully.

“Oh,” she blushed again, “oh, well, thank-you. Veronica is.. A lot.”

Lance snorted, “we are all a bit extra, Rache. It’s a family trait.”

“Luis isn’t…”

“Luis **married** extra and had two very extra kids. I mean I love the Twins 2.0, but c’mon here- Sylvio wouldn’t eat anything but orange colored food for a month because he thought it would turn his hair red!”

She laughed, “that was adorable. He was so mad when he found out it didn’t work that way. I love our sequels! They are the best.”

“They sound adorable,” Shiro said, smiling at the close bond that was so obvious between the siblings.

“They are,” the two of them said at once, then glanced at each other and laughed, all traces of their recent disagreement gone. They were still laughing when the doorbell rang and the pizza guy made his belated appearance. Lance bustled off to pay for the food, leaving Shiro and Rachel leaning against the back of the couch in Lance’s cozy living room.

“Oh! The nursery! Right- they are going to accept the bulbs back and you can exchange them for something else. You happened to get helped by the new guy- I knew that the Williamses wouldn’t have sold you those tulips without making sure you knew they were out of season. They’ll refund you the difference. Just tell them you are getting the stuff for Lance’s garden.” 

“Thank-you, Rachel,” he said, feeling a little less awkward about the whole thing. “I really feel awful about what Onyx did… and I should probably get back home before he gets into something he shouldn’t.”

“Before you do… do you have a picture of this infamous puppy?” she grinned at him.

“Of course I do,” he laughed, pulling out his phone and bringing up a picture of his dog… and then another… and another… and another… scrolling back through old pictures, Onyx getting smaller and cuter in each picture.

“Who’s that?” Rachel asked when he hit a rare non-Onyx photo.

“Mmm? That’s my brother, Keith… and his dog Kosmo… with a K, which Keith insists is **not** so he and the dog match, but I am pretty positive is because he wants to have the same initial as his dog.”

“Cutie! What is he?”

“Keith? He’s a Data Analyst at The SETI Institute.”

Rachel chuckled, “cool- but I meant Kosmo…”

“Oh!” he shook his head, “of course- Collie and Newfoundland mix. Keith spends a **mint** on air conditioning and keeping that monster groomed. It’s ridiculous.”

“Awww, he loves his puppers!” she cooed, “that’s really sweet!”

Shiro snorted, “sweet doesn’t usually describe Keith- but yeah, when it comes to that dog…”

“You joining us for pizza, Shiro?” Lance asked, the pizza box propped on his hip and looking for all the world like he stepped out of a commercial selling pizza as the perfect date food.

“Not tonight, I should get back to the puppy before he causes more chaos, but thanks for inviting me.”

“Another time then,” Lance smiled, “give him a scritch for me, yeah?”

“Will do,” he laughed, something hopeful buoying inside him.

“I’m coming over tomorrow to work on edits,” Rachel said, “we usually get Chinese when we’re working. You can pop over after work, then, maybe?”

“Rache- that’s Thursday,” Lance pointed out.

“Oh right… Coran.”

Lance rolled his eyes, “he’s a busy guy! Thursdays are his only free evenings.”

“Fine, fine, fine- I’m not going to mess with your standing date with ‘the gorgeous man’!”

Lance blushed and smacked Rachel in the shoulder, and Shiro felt that little hopeful feeling shrivel away, “knock it off!” He turned to Shiro, “Thursdays aren’t good for me, but other than that my schedule is pretty flexible.”

“It’s alright,” he said, forcing some cheerfulness into his voice as he carefully picked up the box of bulbs making sure the weight was distributed properly. It had been ridiculous to think that someone as kind and charming and good-looking as Lance was would be single. He was just a friendly guy, that’s all. “Thursdays Onyx and I have puppy classes anyway. Some other time.”

“Yeah, that would be great… lemme get the door…” Lance shoved the pizza box at his sister with an odd amount of force and rushed to get to the door ahead of Shiro. “It was nice to chat with you, neighbor…”

“Yeah,” he mustered a smile, which was not actually that hard to do when Lance was smiling at him. “It was. So… umm… I will go to the nursery tomorrow and try to get it right this time around.”

“Shiro- stop. It was a simple mix-up. Not a big deal.”

“Still… Tomorrow- and then you can have a flower garden again.” Lance opened the door and Shiro squeezed past and tried to ignore the warmth that radiated out of the spot on his shoulder that had brushed against Lance’s arm as he maneuvered the box past the screen door.

“Tomorrow then,” he replied, smiling brightly, “looking forward to it. Bye Shiro!”

“Bye Lance!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Shiro was just getting settled away to sleep when his phone buzzed. Keith. It had to be Keith. His brother was a night owl and far too nosy when it came to Shiro’s life. Well, to be fair, Shiro was every bit as bad about Keith’s life… but that’s what big brothers were supposed to do- watch over the idiot kids. Keith was just nosy.

**_Keith: how did the flowers go over?_ **

Called it. He rolled his eyes and shook his head, but he was smiling- genuinely smiling for the first time since he’d left Lance’s place. It was nice that one of the few predictable things about his wild card of a kid brother was that he cared so much.

**_Shiro: it was a mess_ **  
**_Shiro: I bought the wrong thing- tulip bulbs are planted in the fall, I guess?_ **

**_Keith: LOL you are a such a disaster!_ **

**_Shiro: knock it off_ **  
**_Shiro: his twin sister was there_ **  
**_Shiro: she thinks Kosmo is cute_ **

**_Keith: smart woman_ **  
**_Keith: also- I knew you show off my dog_ **

**_Shiro: I was showing off MY dog and scrolled too far back_ **

**_Keith: you keep telling yourself that_ **  
**_Keith: did you ask the cute neighbor out?_ **

He sighed, aside from both of them being gay, he and Keith were about as different as could be when it came to how they handled their private lives. Keith ‘didn’t do relationships’ preferring to keep things casual and physical. He relied on family and a few close friends to meet his emotional needs, and the only ‘companionship’ he seemed to need was that of his dog. His hook-up app saw lots of use and he was happy that way.

Shiro, on the other hand, was much more traditional in how he approached dating. He liked the romance and the wooing parts of things. He moved slowly, and he got emotionally invested. He wanted marriage and kids and a steady, stable, happy home. He’d thought he was well on his way to that with his ex, and it had hit him hard to find out he was wrong about that. He’d liked Lance, had felt that spark for the first time in a long time… but he’d never really gotten so far as to decide he was going to ask him out on a date or anything.

**_Shiro: no_ **  
**_Shiro: and I won’t be_ **

**_Keith: is this about the scars?_ **

**_Shiro: no_ **  
**_Shiro: he’s seeing someone_ **

**_Keith: really?_ **  
**_Keith: I didn’t get that vibe at all_ **  
**_Keith: he might be polyam_ **

**_Shiro: maybe_ **  
**_Shiro: but I’m not in the right place to be navigating that_ **  
**_Shiro: so… friendly neighbors it is_ **  
**_Shiro: it’s fine_ **

**_Keith: whenever you say that you are lying_ **  
**_Keith: ‘it’s fine’ is ALWAYS a lie with you_ **

**_Shiro: let me rephrase_ **  
**_Shiro: I’m okay with being friendly neighbors with Lance_ **  
**_Shiro: Better?_ **

**_Keith: yes_ **  
**_Keith: but I’m not 100% convinced_ **

**_Shiro: it’s probably too soon for me to be dating anyway_ **

**_Keith: don’t you dare start moping! Adam doesn’t deserve to have that much power over you!_ **

**_Shiro: not moping_ **  
**_Shiro: not about Adam either_ **  
**_Shiro: just worried about rebounding_ **

**_Keith: you have never rebounded in your life_ **  
**_Keith: so stop stressing about that_ **

Friendly neighbors was good. It was good to be friends with your neighbors. Lance was involved with someone, but he was still a likeable guy. He was funny and charming and kind. He loved his family, liked dogs, and was understanding and kind. Shiro would be lucky to have a friend like him. Lots of his friends were good-looking guys. Just because Shiro found him attractive, didn’t mean it had to be weird. Friends. Friends were good things. He could do that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, he’d been wrong about the friends thing.

Soooo very wrong.

Because this? This **sucked!**

He’d returned the bulbs, replacing them with sunflower seedlings that he was assured would thrive and would soon be ready to bloom. He’d even helped Lance with transplanting them into his garden- which was essentially just handing him the little plant when Lance asked for it. He didn’t trust himself to do anything else given his bad luck with plants, but he was more than happy to sit in the grass beside Lance as he chattered happily about the new book he and Rachel were working on, and coaxed stories of growing up with Keith out of him. It didn’t hurt that Lance looked so adorable in his big floppy gardening hat (because “I love the sun, but I’m not such a big fan of my freckles!” Shiro was, though. Shiro was a very big fan of the little speckles of darker brown that dusted over the bridge of his nose and the apples of his cheeks like a little galaxy!), and his lady-bug printed gardening gloves. It also didn’t hurt that Lance would sometimes sing to himself in Spanish as he worked and when he realised he was doing it he’d blush sweetly and apologize. He would have happily sat in the grass with Lance all day, every day if it meant getting to bask in more of… just all of that. His black thumb didn’t seem to taint Lance’s magic either- the little sunflower plants stayed green and hearty after being transplanted. He could almost swear that they were visibly bigger every day when he went for his run.

Just like his growing crush.

A week or so after planting the sunflowers, Lance had told him he was hosting his niece and nephew for the weekend and suggested that they take the kids and the dog to a nearby park together, because the twins loved animals and the puppy needed exercise. So, he had… and Lance was amazing with kids. He pushed them on the swings for ages, finally calling Shiro over and setting up a competition to see who could swing higher. Sylvio and Lance had won, but only because Nadia wasn’t quite the daredevil her brother was and shrieked ‘uncle’, conceding the win. They’d all taken turns playing fetch with Onyx and Lance had made flower crowns out of dandelions for all of them, including the pup, then herded them all together for what felt like a zillion selfies and heatedly discussing which filters they should use… which is how Shiro ended up with a picture of them all with giant cartoon eyes and antlers surrounded by tiny stars on his phone. He loved it though. It was charming and adorable. Lance was a natural with the twins- knowing when to intervene before a disagreement escalated, or ready with a distraction or a well-timed breather. Always with kind patience and a sense of fun and that million watt smile of his. It was so easy to envision what he would be like as a father. Shiro had so much fun with them that he’d treated for ice cream and then pretended not to notice when all three of the McClains each snuck some to the dog. The entire day, Lance just kept surprising him by somehow finding new ways to be even more charming and delightful. It didn’t hurt that Onyx seemed to be just as smitten with their playful neighbor as Shiro was. 

A few times a week, Lance would offer him a drink when he was returning from one of his runs, and no matter what he told himself he would say, Shiro always found himself, flushed and sweaty, sitting at that little cafe table drinking lemonade, or fresh squeezed orange juice, or sweet tea, or even a beer in the evening with his charming neighbor… and Lance was _so_ charming. He was open and funny, and had a way with storytelling that made perfect sense for a man who wrote children’s books for a living. Shiro was learning so much about Lance’s big, loving family. He heard stories about Veronica getting attacked by a rooster, or the time Marco snuck off with the new car to impress a girl and then got so nervous and flustered that he put it in the wrong gear and backed into a telephone pole when the girl agreed to go on a date with him. He listened to Lance talk about how hard it had been to be estranged from his family for two years, although he never asked what had caused it or how they’d reconnected and Lance didn’t volunteer that information. 

He’d shyly shared some of his own stories- the time Keith had stormed off after an argument and gotten drunk, only to call Shiro to come get him because he was in no shape to drive but had no idea where he was; how he’d once gotten stranded in Hong Kong for several days because of bad weather and fell in love with the place.

He was falling hard. The highlights of his day were the times his path intersected with Lance’s. The evening runs with Onyx became a standing routine. He made a point to comment on the sunflowers regularly. When Lance complained that his car battery was dying, Shiro took a look at it and replaced the alternator for him. When he was bringing a couple of suits to the dry cleaners, he offered to bring anything Lance needed cleaned along as well. Lance would sometimes have a basket of radishes and beets and lettuce and other gleanings from the vegetable garden waiting for him when he got home from work in the evenings because he grew “far more than one person could safely eat.” It was all stuff he would have done for Keith or Matt, but the motivation was completely different. He was falling head over heels for his neighbor. He knew it. He was well aware that he was falling, falling, falling for the pretty blue eyes and the bright bright bright smile and the almost sarcastic laugh and the way he cooed and baby talked to the dog and listened so well and was so kind and so funny and so interesting and so so so attractive… and that would be great… except for one little detail that kept slipping his mind and then crashing all his little hopeful daydreams and breaking his heart a little bit each and every time he remembered.

Lance was involved with someone. Every Thursday evening, as Shiro was loading Onyx into the car for puppy classes, he would see him- smiling ear to ear, dressed nicely and carrying a messenger bag that suggested overnight plans- bounding out of the house to his car for his ‘standing date’ with the ‘busy guy’ Rachel had called ‘gorgeous’. The car was never in the driveway when Shiro shut off the lights and headed to bed. It was always back in the driveway when Shiro left for his morning run, but Lance had never been waiting with an invitation to share a drink on Fridays. Shiro was really starting to dread the end of the week. Because it hurt. It hurt more than he wanted to admit to see Lance so excited and happy to spend time with **someone else**.

It didn’t help that Lance was… he was flirty. He was very flirty, actually. All too often, Shiro caught himself flirting back, which was a mistake, because **he** was serious but **Lance** was just… being his charming, affectionate, playful, complimentary, funny self. The fact that Lance was seeing someone was literally his only flaw as far as Shiro could see. He’d never known anyone he genuinely **liked** as much as he liked Lance. He just enjoyed his company so much. Admired him so much. As hard as he tried, he could not find a single fault in the handsome guy that lived next door… and he was trying **so hard!**

He’d chosen sunflowers from the list they’d given him at the nursery because they were his favorite flower. Adam had never liked them, claimed they were too showy, too big, too ‘overdone’, too ‘aggressively cheerful’; but Shiro loved them, especially the less common darker colors. He loved that they were big and stood tall and followed the sun. He loved the dark, glossy leaves and the sturdy stalks. They were beautiful and it almost felt like they were _proud_ of themselves. When Lance had seen the little plastic tags stuck into the soil that told him that the new flowers were an assortment of sunflowers- some smaller, some bigger, some of the fastest growing varieties, some slower, in all the colors that were available- his face had been… **breathtaking.** “I love sunflowers,” he’d said softly, “they always make me feel like a kid again.”

Honestly, it was kind of sad how often Shiro replayed that moment in his head. But as spring moved into summer and the fastest growing of the sunflowers started to bud, that memory still never failed to make him smile. Even on Thursday evenings and Friday mornings. Most weekends, when there was nice weather, they’d end up barbecuing together, because it seemed silly to both be outside on their back decks, grilling enough food for one person and yelling a conversation over the fence. It had become something of a routine. Sometimes Rachel joined them. Once Veronica and Luis had dropped by. Lance usually had some kind of salad that he’d made from the vegetable garden he’d nurtured so carefully. Shiro generally provided beer and potato salad. Whoever was hosting provided the main course. It worked well, but it didn’t do a single thing to slow the progress of Shiro’s huge crush, or to ease the ache he felt whenever he thought about Lance’s ‘standing date’. It wasn’t **just** jealousy, either (although he was self-aware enough to know that there was a heaping serving of jealousy in there). Lance deserved more than a single evening a week. He didn’t even **talk** about this guy- so how happy could he possibly be with the way things were? 

Lance talked about everyone he cared about- Shiro knew as much about Lance’s siblings and friends as he did about his own. Hunk had been his friend since sixth grade when they were paired up together for a science fair project. He hated scary movies (specifically **gross** ones, not spooky ones), loved to cook, and was much funnier than people ever expected him to be. He was a gentle, peace-making guy who would do everything in his power to avoid a fight, but if he got pulled into one- Hunk was winning. Ryan was a quiet guy who looked like a model but had a tendency to hyper-focus on his interests and whose youtube channel was a weird time capsule of all his changing hobbies. Allura was Lance’s first girlfriend in junior high who was obscenely competitive and held black belts in three different martial arts, ‘couldn’t draw a stickman to save her life’, and who held his hand when he came out to his parents- _“which I was freaking out over for absolutely no reason, because they were totally fine with me being bi… but you know, she was there for me anyway. She’s good like that.”_

But Shiro had never heard a single story about the guy Lance rushed off to see every Thursday, and while he didn’t exactly **want** to hear about him, it was seriously out of character that Lance never talked about him. Was that because he’d been asked not to? Was the guy closeted? Married? Lance was **amazing!** How **dare** someone treat him like some kind of secret to be hidden away and relegated to a single night a week! Private and discrete were all fine and dandy, but the longer Shiro knew Lance, the more the whole ‘Thursday situation’ bothered him. He caught himself ranting about it to his brother in text conversations and when they hung out every second Monday, and to his best friend Matt every time he called.

The week before Lance’s birthday, Keith and Kosmo showed up at his door in the middle of the night with no warning. Shiro blearily shuffled through the house trying desperately to hush Onyx before he woke the entire block. He’d opened the door to discover his brother and the massive black dog, who was, of course, quiet and perfectly well behaved while Onyx lost his mind in the living room.

“My a/c is out,” Keith had said as he pushed past Shiro and dropped down to one knee to greet the puppy affectionately, “look at you! Growing like a weed! Such a pretty boy, you are!”

“Keith,” Shiro sighed, rubbing his hand over his face, “it’s the middle of the night… what are you doing here?”

“Told you,” he said, rising and stepping back so the dogs could get reacquainted, “my a/c’s out. It was fine when we left, but by lunch it won’t be safe for Kosmo in the house.”

“Because you live in the desert with a dog bred for the cold, Keith,” he felt the need to point out.

“Exactly, so I packed a bag and here we are. Shouldn’t be more than a couple of days… and you did say we were always welcome, right?”

“Yeah… yes, of course you are. It’s just… late… I’m still half asleep.” Yawning, he waved for Keith to follow him, “guest room is this way.”

For all that Keith could be… challenging to be around, it was nice to have company on his morning run. It was nice to go for a run with his brother again. They used to do this kind of thing all the time back before Shiro had moved away from home for college and again when it was just the two of them until Keith had gotten his own place. While Shiro was getting ready to go to work, Keith called in to his own job and booked a couple of days off to handle the minor crisis of his air conditioning crapping out on him. Keith staying with him also meant that he could leave Onyx home without worry, which was nice. As much as he loved being able to bring his dog to work, not having to meant he could go out for lunch to the little diner he loved but hadn’t been to in ages.

The day flew, even though he missed having Onyx with him more than he had expected to. On his way home as a thank-you to his fast food fiend of a brother for watching the dog all day, he picked up burgers and fries (and a salad, because he honestly had no idea when the last time Keith had eaten a vegetable was).

He was still in a great mood and singing along to the radio when he pulled into the driveway and felt his gut drop ominously. Because… he’d seen Keith leaning against the fence from the road. He’d known he must be letting the dogs romp around a bit. He **hadn’t** seen Lance, though. It wasn’t until he stepped out of the truck that he’d seen his neighbor, crouched down so he could scritch and pet Onyx more easily, completely hidden by the tightly placed white slats of the fence. How long had Keith been talking to Lance? He wasn’t worried about Keith flirting with him or anything- Keith was a typical pain in the ass kid brother, but he wasn’t an asshole… and Lance wasn’t his type anyway. Too… domestic. Too likely to get attached. Too perfect for Shiro. That wasn’t his concern… no, he was worried about something **very** typically ‘pain in the ass kid brother’... namely what the hell had Keith **said** to Lance!?!?!

“Oh! Hey, Kashi,” Keith said easily, waving at him while Onyx greeted him enthusiastically and Kosmo waited patiently for pets and hellos (dammit). He looked… completely casual. Which literally meant nothing, because Keith had the best poker face Shiro had ever seen and that was the **exact** expression he had on his face when he’d been left alone alone with Adam for the first time… and had whipped out **pictures** of Shiro’s very unfortunate I-wear-colored-eyeliner-now-phase and told him about the **disastrous** turn in the high school musical. Shiro could sing. Shiro could **not** act. 

“I… uh… I got burgers,” he said by way of greeting holding up the bags. Keith’s face lit up like an eight-year old’s. Grown men should not get that excited about drive-thru burgers.

“Oh sweet!” Keith levered himself off of the fence and crossed over to grab the bags. “I’ll go put them on plates because I know you want me to, weirdo. Nice to meet you, Lance!” He gave a short, shrill whistle, “c’mon boys! Dinner time!” and just like that, the dogs raced after him and Shiro was alone in the yard… with Lance.

“Hey,” Shiro said, trying to figure out whether to stay by the truck or join Lance over by the fence. Was there a protocol for that? It felt weird to be talking from so far apart, but… “So… you met my brother…”

“Yeah, I did. I asked him about his work. I gotta say, I’m pretty sure he thinks I’m a moron now. He was going on about spectral analysis and radio degradation and how to calibrate the something to account for… uh… atomic decay, maybe? I don’t know- I was lost.” He laughed, crossing the yard. 

Oh, okay. Shiro didn’t have to move. Good. That was good. God, how did Lance always seem so at ease? So comfortable? It was a mystery to Shiro, who turned into a bundle of nerves whenever he was around him. Another mystery was how Lance managed to look so gorgeous all. the. time. Shiro had literally never seen him look less than stunning. It wasn’t fair.

“He doesn’t think you are a moron,” Shiro assured him. “If he did he never would have gone into detail about his job. He’d have just said he crunches numbers and that it is boring. You got all that detail because he thought you might understand some of it… or maybe because he wants you to think he’s smart. Maybe a little of both?”

“Why does he care what my opinion of him is?” Lance asked, leaning against the truck beside Shiro and making Shiro’s brain self-destruct a bit.

“Umm… because you are my friend, I guess. That means you… matter to him a bit. He doesn’t care what most people think, but we… we’re the only family we have left anymore, so…” He shrugged, “we try to make sure we fit into each other’s lives.”

“Right- you told me about your parents… sorry. I didn’t think-” his voice was soft, kind.

“You don’t have to apologize. It was years ago. I was… that’s just why he makes an effort with my friends, that’s all.” Shiro pushed a hand through his hair, “look- I don’t know what he said-”

Lance laughed again, “don’t worry about that! Youngest of five remember? I have the ‘little shit’ playbook memorized. I knew exactly what I was dealing with. Pretty sure I messed him up good, too.”

“Oh?” He should be mortified and filled with dread, and he kind of was, because who knew what embarrassing stories Keith had dished out, what secrets or opinions he might have shared… but Lance’s smile was mesmerizing, and the delight in his eyes was utterly contagious and Shiro felt himself relaxing. Lance could always make him relax, even when he was being a total disaster (which was pretty much constant). Lance always made him smile, too. He couldn’t help it. Just being around him made happiness fill him.

“Mmhmm… every old story he trotted out I just nodded and said ‘oh yeah! I know that one!’ before he got going. Then I made up some to trip him up- so, just so you know; one time we were chatting at the fence and pigeon dive bombed us and our conversation was cut short by the sudden need to wash our hair. Another time we ran into each other at the grocery store and an old lady thought we were married and made inappropriate comments about what a hot couple we made. Oh! And you told me several stories that were really **not fit** for younger brothers to hear. He’d want to bleach his brain.” He crossed his arms smugly and smirked at Shiro.

“You…” He blinked, stunned. Lance looked so pleased with himself, so full of mischief, so proud that he **barely** caught himself before he leaned in to kiss him. “Are **amazing**! Man, I wish I could have seen that!”

“I **am** a writer,” he laughed, “making shit up is my **job**. Messing with his head was 100% my pleasure though. His shocked Pikachu face is **on point**!”

“Did you tell him that?” Shiro laughed, “because when he was a kid…. Pikachu was his **world** for like three solid years.”

“Mine, too! But, no… I didn’t say anything. I was just… content in the knowledge that I’d get to tell you that.” He turned so he was facing Shiro and his smile was just… wow. “I like making you laugh.”

“You’re good at it,” Shiro answered, smiling.

“Yeah?” Lance inched closer and Shiro’s breath froze in his lungs. What was happening right now? Why was he so close? “So… I mentioned knowing the playbook for kid brothers, right?”

“Mmmhmmm,” Shiro nodded, not really trusting his voice. He’d turned to face Lance… **when** had he turned to face Lance?!? His gaze came to rest on those pretty, pretty blue eyes and he couldn’t help the smile he felt bloom on his face. Lance was tall, not quite as tall as him though, and standing like this… when he looked up, Shiro was seeing his eyes through the fringe of his lashes and that **did things** to his heart.

“So… I know when kid brothers feel the need to break out the embarrassing stories…” Lance continued, eyes flicking up to meet Shiro’s and then away. “Do you? Know what it means when we do that?”

“Yeah,” he nodded, barely catching himself before he gave into that invisible pull he always felt around Lance. “Hmm? No… wait… what?”

“Do you know what it means when kid brothers try to tell all the embarrassing stories to someone new?” Lance repeated, laughing softly.

Shiro shook his head, too caught up in the fact that Lance’s eyes seemed to have focused on his mouth and the **implications** of that to form words.

“It means that we think there is something about that person… something that our siblings find special. Appealing.”

“Oh,” he managed, the sound practically a croak. Appealing. Yup. Very appealing. Lance was very appealing and very **close.**

“Do you have puppy classes tonight?”

What?? Oh… “No… not tonight… the instructor… has… a thing.” Puppy classes. Every Thursday, except this week because… wait- Thursday. He stiffened, backing away, “sorry… I shouldn’t be keeping you… you’ve got… the… uh… standing date, thing.”

“The what?” Lance looked so confused. “The standing da- do you mean Coran?!”

Shiro nodded, trying to regulate his breathing, “yeah… I guess. I think that’s the name Rachel said.”

“Rache? Oh my God! That was ages ago… this whole time… Shiro? Do you think I’m **seeing someone**? No, don’t answer that, of course you do. Oh, I am going to kill her.” He took a deep breath, “Coran is Allura’s uncle. He was my English teacher in high school. He’s great, but very… uh… camp. The kids called him ‘Coran, Coran, the gorgeous man’... it was a joke. He helped me and Rachel get published, and after I graduated we became friends. We get together every week to have dinner and work on book stuff. He helps me with the project for my parents, we edit each other’s writing… have a kind of book club thing. He’s… family at this point.”

“But… your sister…”

“Is a pain in the ass kid sister,” Lance finished for him, “we’re twins, we both get to be the annoying kid sibling and the annoyed older sibling to each other. She was being a little shit… trying to make me flustered… because I like you.”

“Oh…” His smile returned, bringing with it a rush of butterflies, “so… you’re single?”

“Mmmhmm… and I like you- you know, in case you missed that part.”

“I… like you, too,” Shiro whispered. Somehow, the distance he’d created between them when he’d stepped back had disappeared. Lance was barely an inch away from him, head tipped up invitingly… so close he could smell his cologne and feel the warmth radiating from him.

“So… you wanna go on a real date with me?” Lance asked, “like at a restaurant or something, instead of hanging out in one of our houses?”

“Yeah, I really do,” he replied, slipping the hand he hadn’t even realized had settled on Lance’s hip around to the small of his back and closing that tiny distance. He sighed at the way Lance fit so perfectly against him, his eyes fluttering shut even as his head dipped. Lance’s hand curled around the nape of his neck and shifted to cradle the back of his head, holding him to the soft brush of Lance’s lips against his own. 

There was a soft sound that could have come from either of them, really, and then he felt Lance’s other hand on his cheek and their mouths slotted together just right and the kiss… bloomed. Soft and sweet and gentle, but absolutely perfect. Like Lance- happiness and grace and good humor and that irresistible pull that Shiro had felt since their very first meeting. 

He leaned down into the kiss and his arm tightened, because this didn’t feel real. This felt like a dream. Like some kind of romantic fantasy from his childhood or something. Kisses didn’t feel like this. Not in real life. They didn’t feel like warmth and joy and **home.** But that’s what kissing Lance felt like. 

Far too soon, Lance was pulling back from the kiss and Shiro could feel the change as those soft lips stretched into a smile. “Mmm, wow,” Lance breathed, settling his head against Shiro’s shoulder, like he wasn’t quite ready to step back yet. “I have wanted to do that for such a long time.”

“I hope it was worth the wait,” Shiro whispered, half-terrified of the answer, because if it wasn’t… he really wasn’t sure how he could go back to the way things were without something new and good and precious inside of him shrivelling up.

Lance laughed, sweet and clear, “very much worth it, Shiro. Date is still definitely still on, don’t worry.”

“Good,” he answered, that awful weight of self-doubt lifting from him and making him feel like he was floating. “When?”

“Is tomorrow too soon?” Lance asked, lifting his head to peek up at him through those lashes again. Shiro nearly sighed at the hope he saw in their blue depths. “I feel like we’ve got some catching up to do…”

“Tomorrow sounds great,” he answered. “You want me to find a restaurant?”

He shook his head, stepping back and Shiro felt his absence like a cool breeze. “I know just the place. You should…” He nodded toward the door, “you’ve got food waiting… and your brother…”

“Right! Right… I should…” He should go inside. He really should. But he stayed right where he was as Lance backed out of his driveway and down the sidewalk, the both of them watching each other and grinning like lovestruck teenagers. He didn’t start moving until Lance was in his own yard and they both reached their front steps at the same time. His hand was on the doorknob when he heard Lance call out to him.

“Hey Shiro! Look,” he pointed at the garden, “the first of our sunflowers bloomed. I think it’s a sign.”

“I think so, too,” Shiro replied. Lance had called them _**’our** sunflowers’_. That was definitely a good sign.

**Author's Note:**

> I really like this little story- someday I may write a sequel or two to it if I ever have time.


End file.
